Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991 TAG: 9102090528
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It can be an unspoken bond between friends or a sign of everlasting love.
There's nothing else like a kiss.
In celebration of Valentine's Day, TNT explores this unique form of expression in all its glory by showcasing some of Hollywood's most famous kisses.
In 1942 millions watched Ingrid Bergman stare into Humphrey Bogart's eyes before he kissed her goodbye in "Casablanca." This scene appropriately opens "Kisses," a loving and light-hearted tribute to romance and affection which can be seen 8 and 11 p.m. Monday (with repeats on Valentine's Day, Feb. 16 and 17).
Lauren Bacall, considered one of the silver screen's most sensual actresses, introduces movie clips starring film legends from the 1930s and 1940s. Each segment centers around a kiss representing a particular feeling - from innocence to intimacy.
She describes the playful and passionate chemistry of classic screen couples, like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and her own on- and off-screen romance with Bogart, her husband from 1945 until his death in 1957.
Turner Publishing consultant Lena Tabori developed the idea of spotlighting popular love stories while looking through the TBS and TNT film library in search of a way to use the untapped treasury of old black-and-white publicity photographs.
"As we started looking at all this material, kisses just kept coming up. They seemed to be everywhere," Tabori said.
She compiled her favorites, along with the dialogue spoken by the characters during the scene, into a hard-cover book titled "Kisses" (Turner Publishing Inc.; $22.50).
"I had to look at all the movies [to discover which] kiss the audience identifies as the one making the difference. As we worked on the book idea, it was obvious it would be a marvelous TV special as well," Tabori said.
"The kiss is just a bridge between the emotions two people have, a messenger of feelings. In the old days it was the only messenger of feelings that was physical. There were more restrictions on the studios. The kiss gained a kind of power. It was the one physical moment.
"In today's films, there is a much broader spectrum of physicality between two people. Unfortunately a great deal of that doesn't communicate much. When there's a physical connection that doesn't have intimacy, it's blah.
"People confuse physical communication with intimate communication. The kiss is nothing more than the sum of the two people's emotions. It can be one of the most fabulous things that happened or just another night.
Producer Michael Blum decided to focus on films from Hollywood's golden age because "when we looked at a lot of contemporary films, we realized people don't [just] kiss anymore. Kissing now is the first step to everything else. Nowadays, it's all about sex. In the earlier days, a kiss was the culmination of a relationship."
by CNB